The present invention has for a subject matter a caisson or like box-shaped building element of at least one stack of such caissons constituting the lateral walls of an underground or buried room or like enclosed space, such as particularly a cellar or the like.
There is known a process for providing an underground room, such as particularly a cellar, in a structure including a floor slab, particularly of concrete, by which it rests upon the ground. The process includes particularly the operations consisting in cutting an opening in the said slabs and digging an excavation therethrough, in providing a bed, particularly a sand-based bed, and then a floor, lateral walls constituted particularly by stacked, preferably prefabricated caissons or like box-shaped building elements, particularly of concrete, and forming storage compartments, and a ceiling. After providing the floor, there are erected posts or uprights, particularly of reinforced concrete, extending from the floor to the level of the ceiling, and the structural elements of the walls, particularly the said caissons, are inserted by sliding and stacked between the said posts serving as sliding and retaining guides.
The caissons, fulfilling the function of retaining walls for containing the earth pressure by bearing against the said posts are particularly substantially paralellepipedic in shape and are open, either entirely or partially, at least at their bottom and on their internal vertical lateral side, i.e. the side opening towards the internal free space of the room.
However, the making of such caissons by moulding is relatively expensive, since it is necessary to use at least two different moulds, one for making the lowest caissons constituting the base of the room walls and having no upper wall, and the other for making straight caissons other than those of the said wall base, having no bottom and having an upper face fulfilling the function of a bottom for the next upper caisson.
Moreover, the structure of the known caissons does not allow providing compartments with different predetermined storage spaces. It would be necessary, to this end, to provide as many moulds as there are different caissons, thus considerably increasing their manufacturing cost.